A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development of the 21st Century

Shanghai Manual – A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development in the 21st Centurywhich closes major avenues of the city and allows only bicycles, pedestrians and anynon-motorized mode to ride along them. This 121-km network served as one of thepolicies that would inadvertently increase bicycle use as a transport mode whenproper policies were implemented after 1998.Caption: Taking children to school on a cargo bicycle is very common in Copenhagen, as aremany other daily activities in this city which has promoted bicycle use for more than 40 years.Photo by Carlos Felipe PardoThe city of Copenhagen is, as many other European cities, one where population is not solarge (1.2 million) and density is adequate at 2,632 inhabitants per square meter. Bicycleshave always been a part of Copenhagen life since the 19 th century, and the second worldwar increased substantially this level of bicycle use. It was only in the post-war era until1960 that cars dominated urban policies and were given precedence over other modes oftransport. 27 The turning point in its transportation policy came with the oil crisis of theearly 1970s, and the growing traffic congestion. The plan to address these issues not onlyredirected the transport policy but also their urban redevelopment plans. It must also beemphasized that cities like Copenhagen a high GDP per capita choose bicycles not justfor economical reasons but also for their great efficiency and various co-benefits.Both cities faced considerable challenges around the time that their policies and projectsshifted to develop a more bicycle-oriented approach. In the case of Bogotá, the challengewas to cope with increasing transport demand and congestion, the need for an improvedoverall transport system and the provision of cheap, reliable modes of transport for theentire population. This challenge was seen as an opportunity by Enrique Peñalosa, whowas mayor of the city from 1998 to 2000. He took the enormous political risk to reducethe investment related to private automobiles and redirect the entire transport policy toone where people would be at the center and infrastructure would be developed for them,27 City of Copenhagen (2009). City of Cyclists: Copenhagen bicycle life.21